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Saturday, October 29, 2011

The impact of BIM for construction industry

BIM or Building Information with it’s real time three dimensional features, serve as a construction productivity tool to increase productivity in the design and construction phases. Many large construction companies are experimenting with BIM to produce cost and schedule savings.

BIM can be utilized for successful construction, lifecycle and long term facility management. BIM data is applied to demonstrate the entire building life cycle. Quantities and properties of materials are extracted without any difficulties. The scope of works is defined effortlessly. Moreover assemblies and sequences are presented in a comparative scale to each other and relative to the entire project.

Building Information Modeling is digital representation of physical (actual parts and pieces being used in the construction process) and functional characteristics of a facility producing an allocated knowledge source of information about the facility. Thus BIM outline a trustworthy basis for decisions throughout its life cycle, from earliest conception to demolition.

BIM can be utilized for construction visualization and result in considerable cost savings, from design and construction through to maintenance. BIM eliminates a lot of risk s and issues easier and earlier before actual construction took place. As a result the construction process gets shortened and construction takes places more efficiently

BIM model saves time and waste on site as the model provides huge accurate and coordinated information which will lead to fewer errors on site. Thus BIM result in considerable cost savings, from design and construction through to maintenance.

The reduced material waste and aptitude to optimize energy utilization through BIM has also made ita rising option for green building projects.

With its parametric characteristics, BIM track the relations among numerous objects from early design through to completion so that if one object changes, the change is automatically coordinated across the project. Each change in design, scheduling or material is immediately accessible to every member of the building team—from engineering and purchasing to plumbing and electrical. As for example BIM analyzes and illustrates every member of the construction team how many light fixtures are required to light up a space receiving little sunlight. It works out how a change in wall color matches up against the carpeting that’s on order. BIM can also find out how a recommended change will have an effect on subcontractor costs and scheduling.

The BIM can also be applied for MEP plans, to generate a drastic reduction in RFIs, and to optimize schedules.

BIM has the potentiality to create a virtual information model that will be handed over from Design Team (architects, surveyors, consulting engineers, and others) to Contractor and Subcontractors and then to the Owner. Here every one will include their own additional discipline-specific knowledge and track changes to the single model. This can lead to reduction of information losses in transfer. BIM also facilitates conflict detection (where the model really notifies the team about parts of the building in conflict or clashing) to check errors occurred at the different phases of development/construction.

BIM is also useful for evaluating several engineering factors like lighting, acoustics or energy practice, to facilitate provide feedback in the designing phase. So the engineers and designers get the ability to have the consequences of changes and discover alternatives in a streamlined process.

BIM programs are also liable for creating general cost estimating for construction project. All the general information are extracted from the model and connects with a database for estimating.

Now some new ideas like applying BIM for older, pre-existing facilities are coming up. These generally reference key indicators, like the Facility Condition Index (FCI). However, the legitimacy of these models should have been observed over time. In order to model an existing building it will require several assumptions about design building standards and codes, construction methods and materials available at the time of construction.

Posted by Rajib Dey
Business Development
rajib@jobs2india.com
Global Associates (Pioneer Company in 3D modeling with BIM & Sketchup)